Salvation Army Harbour Light ARC bargaining update

Your bargaining committee met again with the Employer on October 17, 2011 to try to reach a fair and reasonable agreement to bring back for your consideration. Unfortunately, we were unable to achieve agreement on many items that remain outstanding.

Over the past eight months we have met on a total of 11 days and have achieved some significant language changes and additions, including expanded Harassment language, Jury Duty, Compassionate Care Leave, and revised Casual and Temporary Employee language moved into the body of the agreement. However, the issues that remain in dispute are also significant and the parties are still very far apart on the following issues:

Which positions are included in or excluded from the bargaining unit:

The certification issued by the Labour Board includes “employees in a unit composed of employees of Salvation Army Harbour Light Detox Centre except those excluded by the Act”, and in a subsequent decision dated February 18, 1997, granted “the application by the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union to vary its certification dated September 1st, 1995 for a Unit employed by the Governing Council of the Salvation Army in Canada, Harbour Light (Cordova Detox) to include coordinators, kitchen staff, front desk, night attendants, janitors, truck drivers and counsellors.”

• Over the past years the Employer has made decisions, without consultation with the Union, to exclude a number of classifications from the bargaining unit, either by hiring new staff into existing bargaining unit classifications (for example the CRF Counsellors) and simply placing them outside of the Union or by creating new positions and saying the Employer determined that they are excluded and therefore there was “no requirement to tell the Union about the positions.” This has resulted in several classifications being incorrectly being denied the rights, protections and wage rates under the Collective Agreement. The Union’s position is that we need to have a clear understanding of which positions are in the bargaining unit and those that are excluded. We need an agreed process that requires the Employer to advise us if they create new positions, and to be able to quickly resolve any disputes around whether a new position is in the bargaining unit or not. In addition we want to have all appropriately included classifications listed in Appendix A on the wage grid.
• The Employer’s last position was that they do not want to include several classifications that should properly be in the bargaining unit. They have offered to include some of the disputed classifications as of April 1, 2012, while maintaining others outside of the Union. They also continue to resist having an agreed list of excluded classifications within the Collective Agreement.

  Bargaining Unit Work

• The Union has proposed language that would restrict anyone who is not a member of the bargaining unit from performing your work, with the exception of clients covered by Letter of Understanding #1 re: Therapeutic Mentoring – Work Experience Program; people covered by Letter of Understanding #2 re: Volunteers; or an excluded Manager in an emergency situation.
• The Employer rejected our proposal and today remains opposed to this language.

 Monetary proposals

The Union has proposed the following improvements that have a monetary impact:

• an increase to your vacation entitlement;
• payment of MSP at a single, couple or family rate as needed;
• payment of Extended Health and Dental plan premiums at a couple or family rate as needed;
• an increase to the Employer contribution to your RRSP which would bring your benefit up to that enjoyed by other Salvation Army certifications;
• wage increases each year of 3% for a three year agreement.

We have consistently advised the Employer that we understand that this is a very large monetary package and have been clear that we are willing to negotiate on all of these issues.  However, we find ourselves unable to make any moves because of the Employer’s position on all monetary items.

• The Employer has stated that there is no money to provide wage increases or improvements to any of the benefits you identified as priorities. They have proposed zero percent wage increase, no improvements to any benefits, no signing bonus or retro and a 1.5 year agreement expiring on March 31, 2012.
• The Employer has a proposal on the table to move from a bi-weekly pay period to a twice a month pay period.
• Your committee has consistently said moving to a twice a month pay day is not something we will accept.

At this time we are applying to the Labour Relations Board for a mediator to be appointed to assist us in reaching a fair renewal Collective Agreement on your behalf. When we have been advised of the dates of the mediation process we will send out another Bulletin to keep you up-to-date!

In Solidarity

Deb Wilson    James Gareau
Staff Representative, Negotiations Bargaining Committee Chairperson

Billy Smith    Trevor Mael
Bargaining Committee Member  Bargaining Committee Member

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